8/3/06

belated birthday-ing

just a half hour ago, i arrived home from a long day at work (effing first thursdays) and was greeted by two lovely packages sitting on the stairs waiting for me. one, with the return address of "zombies" contained a beautiful painting of a human brain done by one miss tierney oberhammer, love of my life. the other was filled with three cds (two mixed, one not) celebrating summer and/or my birthday from jonathan. i am tickled pink (and a few other colors).


also, my mother had left a bag full of babyfood jars and one tiny plastic cow on my computer chair. double excellent!
c.

8/2/06

august 26th, 2004

tonight, while looking for pictures of clark as a kitten, i found a lot of hilarious old pictures. some of the best of which are these photos of pete having his nipple signed by jordan (after an aquatic sea life show) and colin. heck, i didn't even know that i knew pete back then! funny how that happens. a lot.


speaking of pete, jordan, and colin, i've been spending a lot of time with new milford kids and doing things like swimming in lakes at 2am and eating ice cream cake and watching conan the barbarian. also, discussing the hilarity of the word "snorkel" and all other forms of it (snork, snorked, snorks, etc.). all in all, not a bad way to spend the rest of the summer.

c.

ps - ONLY 29 MORE DAYS!

7/23/06

p. nut

today, britt and i/my mom and i went to a bunch of tag sales/estate sales around the town(s). the "estate sale" was a total bust, but i got a ton of old cameras. my mom and i found a moving sale at a fun old house in bethel, and they had a bunch of great stuff. the best of which is this (sort of creepy) necklace:
who wouldn't want a necklace that was a ... blind peanut?
c.

7/12/06

birthday yotes!


Birthday Yotes!
Originally uploaded by chessie monks.
it's my birthday. so far, i have recieved:

-two excellently stolen coyotes.


thank goodness for 19.
c.

7/10/06

ha

mike burns = king.

"Mike, thank you for taking photos of all those bands. Also, Chessie is a QT. Where can I get in line to make out with her?
Love,
Ben 'Giant Beard' Sisto"

thanks burns.
c.

7/9/06

september 12th

JT! yes, please!
c.

7/8/06

cute.com

first, go to this and see how cute it is.

thanks.

i have been working pretty much every day of the week, which leads me to be either a) cranky or b) tired or c) both. sorry.

but, um, i had a really excellent fourth of july... mike (machenry) came to visit me and we had a picnic on my bedroom floor (it was raining!) and then we went to the fireworks in fairfield with jackson. we also watched night of the living dead. what else would you watch on the fourth of july?!

otherwise... i put up a lot of photos on flickr, and it's my birthday in... three-four days.
c.

7/6/06

aw, hell

it smells like a skunk's ass in my bedroom/house. more later.
c.

6/21/06

building

it is funny how everything can come together and fall apart at exactly the same moment.
c.

6/20/06

ah, summer.


this summer is so on.
c.

6/17/06

bless you

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

6/16/06

where are we

jesus christ, the song, hide and seek by imogen heap is absolutely beautiful. it makes my chest hurt.


goodnight.
c.

6/15/06

new phone!

so. yesterday, the vibrate feature on my cell phone bit the dust mysteriously. and since this feature is very important to me (burns, hold your tongue), i had to get a new one.

for the low, low price of 110 billz, i picked up this new one today, which is mostly okay. apparently it is for use while flying neat kites (see above), which i am psyched about.

buuuuuut i am in mourning for my other phone. wah.
c.

6/13/06

move your feet


i went to see an inconvenient truth with anton, britt, and mike this evening. it made me not want to have children. it also made me wonder if i could survive worldwide famine, or drought, or flood, or if i would just drop dead from lack of effort. ahm.

i liked how whenever they showed al gore thinking epic-ly, he was either a)driving in a car or b)riding in first class on a jet. WHAT ABOUT REDUCING YOUR CO2 EMISSIONS, MR. GORE?

c.

ps - today i painted the kitchen table black (and got some helpful hints from home depot!) and spent time with ken (who i ran into on the way out of the movie theater). tomorrow i work.

6/12/06

new things


i went shopping at ikea yesterday, and i got a bunch of things for the apartment. most importantly, i got the table i have been fawning over for months (and it is amazing!) and a new (full size for more people space) bed! yeah!

tonight i am going to go see an inconvenient truth with anton and britt. we'll see how it is!
c.

virginia


The Head
Originally uploaded by chessie monks.
well, i am back. and i have pictures on my flickr. more later. bye.
c.

6/3/06

6/3-6/10


this is where i'll be staying for the next week, along with my 15+ relatives and britt. YES.

bye.
c.

5/31/06

81

ANGH. i mean, really. eyes like that should probably be made illegal. jesus.
c.

5/23/06

lenticular!

while rifling through the downstairs luggage/camera closet looking for an extra slide carousel this evening, i happened upon my mom's old NIMSLO 3D CAMERA. i have seen a number of photos taken with this camera when my mom was younger (read: the 70s and 80s) and have always been interested in using it. needless to say, i snatched it up and scampered off to find my mother, who looked at it fondly. she did a google search and discovered a company in canada that still does 3D processing. I AM PLEASED BEYOND BELIEF. i will be shooting a multitude of rolls using it very soon and sending them off lickety-split to be processed (and cheaply!) in toronto. oh boy!

tomorrow morning i will awaken early (i woke up at 1pm today...) and drive up to new milford high school/labyrinth to hang out with kyle and see the art show. i missed bethel's art show this year, so maybe this will make up for it. maybe.

also, we are going to georgia this weekend for joe's graduation (!!!) and it is predicted that the weather will be somewhere around 90 degrees. obscene. and so good.
c.

5/21/06

oh! and this morning i picked kyle up (at the now-missing mcdonald's) and he had burned me approximately 300+ mike doughty cds so i am feeling exceptionally pleased and can't wait to listen to them after work.
c.

and nine

last night was the kiefer gala at the museum. i worked from noon until midnight. it actually went really well, for a gala. usually it is a nutty slightly drunk snobby crowd (granted, they did pay $375+ to be there), but they were actually surprisingly low-key. i mean, aside from the few awkward moments/ridiculous things. i was pleasantly surprised. ken wore a smashing suit and got a little drunk, and kyle crashed his car (and i had to drive him home), and we all stole dessert, and made fun of the drunken guests, and there were a multitude of attractive young men (with lots of ca$h), and a waiter who looked like he belonged in the mod squad, etc. all in all, a great night.

i got home around 12:40, and i have been back at work since 11. this week is the members' preview week for the anselm kiefer piece, so that should be interesting.

this weekend = georgia for joe's graduation (and seeing peter!!!)!!!1!!!1one

there is a small child trying to get into the delivery door, so i must go do my job.
c.

5/19/06

ALSO WHY DOESN'T ANYONE EVER CALL ME?
c.
i am depressed. i just cleaned the shower. now i am about to mop the floor.

fuck being home, fuck all the friends i don't have (any longer), fuck the gala tomrrow, fuck gas money fuck people who smoke fuck beinglazyfuckmoneyfuckfuckfuck fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!

c.

ps- the tortoise has nothing to do with anything.

5/15/06

I AM COMING TO BOSTON TODAY.
c.

5/11/06

sad!


george lutz died on wednesday!
c.

5/9/06

forward motion


this is most definitely charles, the snake that lives inside ken and my nametag at work. he's still in montana. ken is. not charles.

work is OK. this coming friday is the dinner for the owners of the new anselm kiefer piece (read: $$$$). the 20th is the kiefer gala (read: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$). the tickets for the gala range from $375 to $20,000. it is always... a treat. people who have that much money to be spending on dinner/dancing/schmoozing at the aldrich are a weird crowd. and every spring, the staff at the aldrich get to enjoy their annual freak-out session. it's wonderful.

i went shopping for a "little black dress" yesterday. i fell in love with one from j. crew which cost $250 dollars. that amount of money on a dress is against my morals. so, tonight, my mother and sister and i will go scour more stores. i did buy a vomitously cute summer dress from h&m which i cannot wait to wear... if only it weren't 56 degrees and raining!

dr. boylan asked me to work tomorrow. i don't want to. i think being in connecticut is making me depressed.
c.

ps- burns, vomitous is so a word. ken says it as well. that is proof.

5/6/06

old school


i found these two photos in an envelope when cleaning my room. the first is me, just after being brought home from the hospital. i can't stop yawning, looking at it. my sister and i look SO YOUNG in the second. granted, we are. overall, my verdict is... so cute!

i think i need to go to bed.
c.

5/5/06

clean sweep

... my new best friend. seriously. this shop-vac is amazing. amazing!

today after i ate lunch in ridgefield with ken (who left today to go to montana for a week to see his son), i went completely mental and cleaned the entire upstairs bathroom/linen/medicine closet. there were tons of boxes/bottles of expired medicines and really old suntan lotion. i also took down the tacky old bronze towel racks, soap dishes, etc. then i moved on to vaccuming the carpet runners in our upstairs hallway, which probably have never had any real attention paid to them in the five years that we have lived here (mind you, we have three cats). now i am trying to decide whether to start cleaning my side of the basement or read a book. long story short, i am completely insane. i am on a cleaning binge. anyone who knows me well may recommend a therapist.


my mother is going to be in texas over mother's day weekend. so, i am planning to clean the entire house while she is gone (and my sister is druggedly drooling after her wisdom teeth surgery). i may not make it through the weekend, but goddamnit, this house is going to be clean. everything could use a really good vaccuming/dusting... and it will be good for clark's (our cat who is allergic to dust) allergies. so, anyone who wants to come laugh/lend a hand/moral support that weekend is more than welcome to come over.

oh also! my sister is coming home tomorrow! yeay!
c.

EFL

tomorrow morning my mother is giving a presentation called "english as a first language" to the members of the accounting firm where she works. it is basically writing for dummies (or math-minded people, i guess).

anyway, long story short, she had me quickly photoshop the heads of the bosses of the firm onto some images from the new illustrated "strunk & white's elements of style" (illustrated by maira kalman, writer/illustrator of sayonara mrs. kackleman, a favorite book of mine!).

the above is only one of the fine and hilarious images. my mom and i almost died laughing. thank goodness for my mom.
c.

5/4/06

WHAT

i have never ever never ever ever never ever ever ever seen anything so vomitously cute IN MY LIFE.

okay i am really going to bed now.
c.

5/2/06

puttering

i have been exceptionally productive since being home. i pretty much tore my entire room apart, and filled the guest bedroom with things to sell at a tag sale (soon!). now i am just in the process of unpacking my stuff from school. i'm almost done... just a few things here and there.

if i finish up unpacking my stuff today, then i can start to go through and sort out all those vintage clothes i got from poppy's house 430538034 years ago and maybe put some of them up on ebay. money money money!

i start work thursday... i am working at the "first thursday" event... the theme this month is "party like it's 1999." thank goodness for the aldrich.

grades were posted on myneu today. my GPA for this semester is a 3.5!!! jeez. so, my cumulative GPA is now a 3.417. hoorah!
c.

5/1/06

cat nap


i stayed up until 2:45am last night to win this copy of the script of psycho signed by: ANTHONY PERKINS, JANET LEIGH AND ALFRED HITCHCOCK. okay, best thing ever, thanks! i am tremendously psyched. i can't wait for it to come in the mail so i can drool on it every day.

other than that, i have been hanging out with the cats. and cleaning. and napping. mmm.
c.

4/30/06

06801

connecticut is OK. just OK. i have been spending a lot of time with my mom, which is always a plus. also, i am destroying my bedroom and rearranging everything and having a tag sale soon.

c.

4/27/06

they're the choices i've made

things:

king kong vs. godzilla triple feature - so much fun!
silent hill - gross, stuck to the games pretty well
all of my belongings - packed
studying - ehhh
tomorrow - not looking forward to it



in other news, i have a huge crush on crown prince frederik of denmark.
c.

4/26/06

naps


well.
c.

4/25/06

free cone day 2k6



today was free cone day at ben & jerry's. everything tastes better when it is free.

i go back to connecticut in three days. to be honest, i don't really want to go. i suppose it will be good because i will get to see my mom and ken. but ah, i can't want to live up here all year round. except for the whole not getting to see my mom and ken thing. crap.
c.

4/21/06

kickball 2k6


All of us, after the game!
Originally uploaded by chessie monks.
tonight we all played a very intense game of end-of-the-year kickball.

my team, TEAM BOA CONSTRICTOR STRANGLING A TIGER, got their asses kicked. we all looked fabulous, though.

c.

extremely amazing

last night, at coolidge corner, i went to see jonathan safran-foer do a reading from extremely loud & incredibly close. i didn't have tickets, so i waited in the standby line, and an older woman sold me her extra ticket. i was tickled pink. the event was held in the big theater downstairs, and it was almost completely full.
the reading was amazing. absolutely brilliant. i think that jonathan read the passages in the exact way that i had imagined them in my head... you could definitely tell that he had put a lot of his own personality into the character of oskar. in the novel, if you haven't read it, there are a lot of wonderful photographs placed throughout. while jonathan was reading, these images were projected onto the movie screen as they appeared in the text. this had a wonderful effect, as many of the photographs are... very strong images. it was beautiful. jonathan read very clearly, and gave the characters their own personality, so you could tell that he was very close to the novel (or, rather, that he had done this a million times). at the end, i was very heartsick, and also very pleased. i know that i need to read the novel again... it is such an enormous work, in my mind.
after the reading, everyone crossed the street (imagine, 200 people flooding out into the crosswalk) to the brookline booksmith to have their books signed. i had brought my mother's hardcover copy along with me, but decided to purchase a paperback copy for myself as well. when you purchased a copy of the book, they gave you a key that you could try in a lock. if your key worked, you won a prize (framed prints of images from the book, a paper sculpture made out of a copy of the book by JSF himself)! having bought my copy and recieved my little key, i waited in line for 1.5 hours (!) and got my book(s) signed. i always get sort of flustered at these things, so i just sort of babbled about why my mother's name has an 'e' in it, and how a lot of golden retrievers are named chessie. he was very sweet, and looked absolutely worn out in a very precious sort of way. it was first class. sadly, my key did not work in the lock, but i kept it anyway, just for pack-rat's sake.

i really wish my mom could have been there to experience it with me. she would have enjoyed it so much, and she is the one who lent me the book in the first place.

overall, things are going amazingly well. i had my first final this morning, rock music, and i think i did rather well. tonight there is a kickball game in the fens, filled with lots of music, and booty shorts, i suspect. i am going home in exactly a week.
c.

4/19/06

$$

i am going to have to go ahead and say i want- no, NEED this hat. someone give me $40.
c.

the lemon of pink


while this photo was taken a week or so ago, today has been a day very similar in general feeling. today i had my last class of the semester! to me, this is a very strange thing indeed. i guess i will take my finals and then go home for four months. i guess.

c.

ps- i suppose, in a moment of general silliness (and shouting) we (i) may have overexaggerated the extent of matt's injuries yesterday. he does have a concussion, but he made it through the night (almost).

4/18/06

to the hospital!

so. matt crashed into some dumb bitchfor. er, her car. he is dead. or he has a concussion.

also, the only people who read this blog are matt and burns. but i am making this post because matt may not remember 20 minutes from now. we are taking him to the hospital again, probably.
c.

ah.

i have so many crushes on both people in this picture. jeez.
c.

4/14/06

by-tor... and the snow dog!

At this very moment I am enjoying a smallish break from typing my "concert review" paper (which, coincidentially, I have not yet begun to type) to stuff my face full of chex mix and feel anxious about moving out of the dorm... to be precise, about how to get all my stuff back out of the dorm without a)breaking an arm or b)taking 400 years.

I have actually been feeling anxious about a lot of things lately. A few of these things are (in no particular order):
-Moving out/leaving Boston
-The end of the semester
-Going back to Connecticut
-Not having heard from Ken in what seems like months
-Relationships back home
-Running out of funds (and trying to work my ass off this summer)
-Probably The Future. No, definitely THE FUTURE.

Yes, THE FUTURE. That one where I sort of freak myself out and become convinced that I will have no money or friends or a job or time or probably life.

Anyway. This week has been... interesting. I had a lot to say about it but am now feeling sort of overwhelmed. In light of this, here is a Dig-style week in review:

-Last full week of classes: PLUS 2
-No death class Monday: PLUS 1
-Up to my eyeballs in Bible readings: MINUS 2
-Feeding squirrels in the park with GV, Peter, and Jared: PLUS 2
-Contracting rabies (probably) from squirrel scratch: MINUS 1
-Getting a ticket to the release of Death Cab's DVD, Directions: PLUS 4
-Spring issue of Spectrum, Astronauticus & the Dromedary released Tuesday: PLUS 2
-Amazing videos/Q&A at Directions screening at Coolidge: PLUS 3
-Lots of Drama. Lots of it. For your Momma: MINUS 6 (Yeah, SIX)
-My iPod surprising me with an excellent variety of "I'm feeling upset" songs: PLUS 1
-Seeing Death Cab for Cutie: PLUS 2
-The crap venue, assholes sitting next to me, etc.: MINUS 3
-Running out of money and therefore feeling anxious about The Future: MINUS 4
-Eating Annie's with my sister & being related in general: PLUS 3
-Going to the Black Maria film festival at the MFA: PLUS 1
-Being surprised by a great animation by Sarah Jane Lapp: PLUS 1
-Almost forgetting to write my concert review paper: MINUS 2
-Having to write my concert review paper: MINUS 1
-Getting to write about Jenny Lewis: PLUS 1
-My camera has declared itself obsolete and therefore needs to be replaced: MINUS 3
-The Me First & The Gimmie Gimmie's cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" just came on: PLUS 1
-Missing Tierney Oberhammer in a really big way: MINUS 2
-It was 70 degrees outside this afternoon: PLUS 2

Total: PLUS 2

Ah, all is (almost) well.
c.

4/13/06

talking about

c.

4/11/06

ps

it should also probably be noted that i have signed up for classes for the coming fall semester. i will be taking:

-Elementary ASL 2 - Schreyer - MWR 9:15 - 10:20AM
-Jazz - Price - MWR - 10:30 - 11:35AM
-Survey of English Lit 1 - Leslie - TRF - 11:45 - 12:50 (with Peter!)
-Urban Social Problems - Rabrenovic - TF - 9:50 - 11:30

i am excited. i have heard nothing but good things about my professors, and i can't wait to learn more ASL.
c.

hooray


on wednesday, we signed the lease for our new apartment. lukewarm sake = party time! (note peter and myself looking a lot like mirror images of eachother. okay good.)

also, anything ridiculous you may have heard about the "good riddance kurt" party on saturday is probably true.
c.

4/7/06

photobooth

urgh, i hate how blogger resizes everything. anyway, there is now a $2 photobooth in the mfa. excitement abounds!

in other news, my address next year will be 10 Copenger St., Apt. 4!
c.

4/5/06

is your man on the flo?



i know there is a weird break in the two pictures, but that grey-roofed house in the middle is... (possibly) OUR APARTMENT FOR NEXT YEAR FROM THE AIR! YAYYAAYAYAYAY!

i love everyone! everyone!
c.

4/2/06

vitamins

so. i bought this shirt yesterday. i broke through my recent stingy ways and coughed up the 17.99... i am feeling very pleased with this soon-to-be addition to my wardrobe. yeah!

c.

4/1/06

and again and again and again

guess what time it is?! that's right, it's time to set the fens on fire AGAIN! yayyyyyyyyy!


only this time, let's make it right across the street from melvin hall, so when you are awoken by the sirens and creepy red light at 2am, you can feel the HEAT from the damn thing through your windows! yeah!

c.

3/30/06

rats!


...this cryptic message appeared on the sidewalk outside my sister's apartment this week. up the punx!

geneva, peter and i started the search for apartments today. we met with this guy named joe, who turned out to be a northeastern student (and also somewhat of a NICE ya dude). we looked at four places, and they were all very nice, but way up at the top of our price range (with no heat/hot water included!). so tomorrow peter and i are meeting with tom, "the asian swindler." fingers crossed.

c.

wait a minute

it has just come to my attention that i have no idea where my light blue scarf (that my mom made me) is! i realized this after seeing a photo of dany in one just like it. did i leave it somewhere? did i lend it to someone? is dany wearing my scarf?! AUGH!

EDIT: ah, just kidding. my mom found it. thank goodness for my mom!

c.

3/29/06

it is finally spring

ahhhhhhhh, the sunshine!
c.

3/27/06

for the second time today, and third time this week...

ah, the fens... in flames! glorious! and very exciting to those of us trapped in the building writing papers all day.

also, ten hundred high fives for the firefighters!
c.

self-explanitory procrastination!

c.

3/26/06

i get knocked down



drunken robots are always a good idea. we were supposed to see thank you for smoking last night, but it was sold out, so we ate amazing burritos at anna's, and then we went to pete's house and drank 60 beers. there was a large amount of sing-a-long-ing, including chumbawumba and a whole lot of weezer. not to mention moshing to andrew wk. all in all, i would say this has been an exemplary weekend. if only i didn't have two papers left to finish today.

c.

3/25/06

lumbernumber


saw the lumberjacks last night! they were awful (just kidding)! it was great! also pete and i ate pizza. but it was bad. so he was sad.
c.